West end beach owners explore different erosion control options
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
The 'Sconset Bluff has the 'Sconset Beach Preservation Fund and beach nourishment, but Smith's Point has Joseph Farrell and his shoal modules.

Farrell spoke to around 30 members of the Smith's Point Association at its annual meeting on July 12 at the Maddequet Admiralty Club, telling this group that he wants to start testing, at his expense, the use of custommade steel tanks - called shoal modules - that he would plant just off the beach in certain locations.

Farrell believes his shoal modules can trap the westward movement of the sand along this section of Nantucket's South Shore and help rebuild these beaches.

The steel tanks, around 20 feet by 10 feet and roughly five to six feet tall, would be placed perpendicular or parallel to the beach in the surf zone with the intention of trapping sand flowing in the water up or down the beach. Farrell's crews would fill the modules with water and secure them with mushroom anchors, and could then pump air into the tanks and quickly remove them if they proved ineffective or destructive.

If this concept works, and Farrell is sure it will, then it would serve as a steppingstone to a more permanent solution that might include submerged wave breaks, which would then need to be funded by sources other than Farrell.

"If we find the benefit of them, if this works and everybody is happy with that, then we would change those steel ones and make them concrete," he said. "I've got a quarter million into this already, and I'm willing to give a little bit more."

Farrell, owner of Resolve Marine, a marine salvage company that rescues stranded ships from sand bars and other perilous situations and creates artificial reefs by sinking decommissioned ships, is responsible for safeguarding 45 percent of all oil tankers entering U.S. waters as an emergency first-responder. He also handles hazardous material cleanups such as oil spills.

Having summered on Smith's Point with his family for 20 years, witnessing the steady disappearance of its south-facing beaches, Farrell had an epiphany. Why not bring his considerable knowledge of ocean currents, and assets, to bear on Nantucket?

The result was last winter's collection of sand movement and current direction data from a shed perched in the dunes near Tom Erichsen's house. Using an ocean currentmeasuring meter called the MAVS-3, and working with coastal scientist Steve Elgar of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass., Farrell began watching ocean sand last fall.

The current meters measure the speed, direction and sand content of the water at the molecular level using light beams. The data is collected using two MAVS-3s planted off the South Shore at intervals of 290 and 490 feet and wired by low voltage cables to Farrell's computer in the shed.

Having collected enough data during the off season to know which direction the water and sand is moving, Farrell explained to the Smith's Point Association that he wants to go ahead with phase two of his project that includes the temporary installation of his sand modules along their shores.

"My thoughts are to put a couple of them in front of Tommy's (Erichsen) house and a couple between Mass. Ave. and the new cut," he said. "We don't want to interfere with that cut. I think that cut is important for a few reasons."

Farrell believes the new cut between Smith's Point and Esther Island is helping build up a shoal that is interrupting the current flowing east to west along the shore, a natural occurrence that could help, not hurt, the shoreline.

"I'm hoping that these shoals will build up and interrupt the current when there's a storm there; these shoals are looking like they will be slowing down the south coast erosion."

So confident is Farrell in his approach toward erosion control that he told Smith's Pointers that this could be a one-time fix.

"Let me tell you this, I could save all of Sankaty's beaches for about two thirds the cost and never have to do it again," he said.

Although there were many questions about his proposal, an informal show of hands mixed with many voice responses revealed almost all to be in favor of Farrell's plan. Still, many property owners had questions they wanted answered before they threw their complete support behind Farrell's shoal modules. Erichsen, whose house was recently moved back from the dunes but who is running out of land, urged the members of the Smith's Point Association to get informed and get behind Farrell.

"Everyone has to start somewhere," he said. "When an application is put in for phase two [the shoal modules] to the Conservation Commission, if Joe has your support, it would generally help him get these permits."

Farrell said he is about one to two months away from filing a notice of intent with the ConCom and that he would also file for permits with the Army Corps of

Engineers and the appropriate environmental agencies. I